Clammy, erotic and unsettling, Somersault follows Heidi (Abbie Cornish), an emotionally fragile teenager who runs away from home after copping off with her mum's boyfriend. Stuck in a dead-end Aussie town, she gets attention through sex and strikes up a rickety relationship with troubled farm hand Joe (Sam Worthington). Both compelling and worrying, the film is haunted by the unshakeable sense that something terrible is about to happen.

It's a remarkably tactile film. "When you leave you still feel her on your skin," says Joe of his lover and Somersault does the same, lingering with you long after watching. First-time writer/director Cate Shortland uses close-ups and colour-tinted shots to really make you feel you're there. And Cornish's performance is quite brilliant, capturing an innocence and a raw sexuality, an aching and a sense of loss that is astonishing in an actor so young (she was 22 when she made the movie). Playing 'simple' or emotionally stunted characters, actors can easily appear patronising or showy (see Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump). Cornish is just real.

"ABSORBING AND BRAVE"

Anyone brought up in the sticks will easily relate to the environment these needy, confused characters inhabit - a place teeming with frustration and the threat of violence. But the theme is universal: the need for love and the craving for intimacy. Absorbing and brave filmmaking, Somersault will throw you.